Usually by the end of the second week of the legislative session, the education committees have essentially completed their review of education rules and lawmakers begin focusing on writing, printing, and debating legislative bills. This year is atypical.
Both the House and Senate Education Committees still have several days of work ahead of them before they’re able to focus solely on legislation. This week, subcommittees of the House Education Committee finalized their decisions regarding the rules. Now, they must present the entire package of rules to the full House committee. In the Senate, committee members have spent several days this week wrangling over the rules.
On Thursday, the panel rejected a portion of a rule that would have increased the required credits from 20 to 45 for an English endorsement. They also spent several meetings discussing a rule that would require at least 60 minutes a week of elementary school P.E., 200 minutes biweekly in middle schools, and allow students who play in varsity or club sports to receive one P.E. credit for participation. The complexity of the issue caused committee members to set a decision aside for the time-being.
The committee is expected to take up discussion of the rules after next Wednesday’s panel discussion on the Idaho Core Standards.
